


As Happy As Can Be

by merlywhirls



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Get Together, I didn't get to say but annabeth's band is grungy punk feminist core, Modern Non-Demigod, and i regret not putting nico in an emo band, band au, this was a commission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-20 13:36:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8250979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merlywhirls/pseuds/merlywhirls
Summary: Calypso has the opportunity to do something she's always dreamed of -- perform live on stage. But she either has to do it with her Uncle's dorky garage band (no thanks) or with the loud boy from the Hades bar that annoys her to no end (less, thanks).





	

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MUSIC. ALSO, dont ask me why underaged kids hang out at a bar manned by another underaged kid, dont ask dont ask dont ask

*** 

_A blinding sun never broke my heart but, fuck, it sure did sting._

_I don’t know what to do about recovering_

_Really, I was hoping this wouldn’t be a thing._

_***_

 

Calypso wanted to leave _Ogygia_.

            Her uncles’ garage stank like motor oil and dirt, the toe of her white shoes blemished as soon as she stepped in. Everything was layered in dust, the bench top, the tools, and the old kayak that they never used anymore. The only things that weren’t covered in grime were the instruments and equipment, and that was because they all wiped them clean with their hands over time.

            “Let’s take it from the top,” one of her uncles said enthusiastically. “Callie, try to reach that note just a _teensy_ bit higher.”

            Her uncle pinched with his fingers to show her just how teensy, peering through the small space between his fingers to look at her. She tried to smile.

            “Excellent.” He clapped his hands happily, then took up his harp again. “Let’s do this, folks!”

            She doesn’t even really know how she ended up in this position in the first place. Uncle Apollo always had weird and extravagant ideas, but hardly any of them actually lasted this long. Calypso was there for the rise and fall of the Haiku Club, and then its conversion to General Poetry Club, and then that one week when Uncle Apollo thought they should give slam poetry a try. She was there to help Uncle Apollo when he decided to be a Boy Scout leader and teach kids first aid, pretending to be the ailing victim of snake bites and heart failure. She barely survived the archery phase, but the look on her uncle’s face when he hit a bullseye was worth it.

            But Calypso did not expect, out of all of Uncle Apollo’s hobbies, for this garage band to be the one to stick.

            It probably had something to do with the fact he managed to get Uncle Hyacinths to join them on the drums. He knew how to keep a steady beat and knew the importance of playing into his husband’s dramatics for the sake of peace, but so far had refused to indulge in Uncle Apollo’s Hobby Circus. Usually, he just baked the rest of them cakes.

            Calypso tapped her foot as Uncle Hyacinths started drumming at a steady rhythm. After the count of four, Uncle Apollo started playing on his harp, then his son Austin started on his guitar, and then her Other-Uncle Hermes started playing the keyboard.

            It was a cacophony of unsynchronised noise, but that was the way Uncle Apollo wanted it. It was unique, he had explained, and that no one else in the country – or the world – would create a sound like it. Calypso didn’t understand why anyone would want to, but just like Uncle Hyacinths and so many others, she couldn’t say no to Uncle Apollo’s enthusiasm.

            Even if it was giving her a headache.

            “Alright gang, I think we’ve done enough for today,” Uncle Apollo finally, _finally_ , said. He went around and gave everyone a high five. “Good work, band. See you next week, right Callie?”

            Calypso stopped at the garage roller door, turned to her uncle and smiled tightly. “Sure thing.”

            “Ada girl.” Uncle Apollo grinned. “Austin! Lemonade?”

            Calypso pulled up the roller door, more dust and grit getting stuck under her nails, and pulled it down behind her before she walked down the driveway. She reached the mailbox when someone shouted from the front door.

            “Calypso! You busy tonight?”

            Another thing about Uncle Apollo was that he liked collecting kids. He had practically adopted her when her parents passed away, and Uncle Hyacinths didn’t seem to mind this eccentricity so much. Their house was overflowed with kids, and even a few adults who hadn’t moved out yet.

            One of those waved to her from the front porch.

            “William,” Calypso greeted, because she knew it annoyed him. “How is it that you didn’t get stuck in _Ogygia_?”

            Will shrugged as he walked to her down the cement path, linking their arms together and pulling her down the street.

            “I simply lack the musical talent,” Will said happily. “Dad said there wasn’t really a need for someone to play the triangle.”

            “It didn’t stop the rest of them,” Calypso grumbled. “I don’t think Uncle Hermes knows how to turn off the programed music on the keyboard.”

            “Oh, he does,” Will said. “But what would be the fun in that?”

            Calypso sighed and rested her head on her cousin’s shoulder.

            “Are you not having fun?” Will asked quietly.

            “I don’t know,” Calypso breathed. “I’ve always wanted to be in a band, but this isn’t quite what I had imagined.”

            Will hummed. “I don’t think anyone could have imagined this train wreck.”

            “But I don’t want to disappoint him,” Calypso said thoughtfully.

            Will stopped walking, jerking Calypso to a halt. “Who? Dad? You’re not gonna disappoint him for leaving _Ogygia_. He’ll get over it.”

            Calypso shook her arm free from Will’s. “He will be! He got this idea from me, and now I’m pulling out of it…”

            “Listen,” Will said sagely, putting his hands on Calypso’s shoulders and looking her in the eye. “We both know that his clubs and societies don’t last very long. Just give him a few more weeks and then you’ll be back to reciting Shakespeare for kindergarteners.”

            Calypso raised an eyebrow. “Shakespeare for kindergarteners?”

            “Yeah. He cried for an hour because Victoria didn’t know the famous Hamlet ‘to be or not to be’ quote.”

            “She’s six.”

            “Exactly why they need to start learning in kindergarten,” Will said with a glint in his eyes.

            Calypso burst out laughing, probably spraying Will in her spit in the process but hardly caring as she doubled over. Will laughed with her, his hands still on her shoulders and shaking her vigorously.

            “Don’t fret,” Will told her when they calmed down. “ _Ogygia_ will disband in its own time. Until then… You got your ID?”

            Calypso rolled her eyes and shuffled through her small bag. “My real one or fake one?”

            Will grinned before he started running down the street, leaving Calypso behind to catch up.

_***_

_An angel said, “You’ll belong to me, baby,”_

_And suffocated me in his white washed wings._

_I can still feel those dirty feathers poking me._

_***_

 

It was still daylight outside, but Calypso wouldn’t have known by the way the bar was completely blacked out. The Hades bar was mostly black with accenting lime green bannisters, lightings and chairs. The bar itself was lit up with green fluorescent lights, casting a ghastly glow on the single bar tender.

            “This place is depressing,” Calypso told her cousin, but her voice could hardly be heard over the band playing in the corner on a small, elevated stage. Will just grinned and nodded at her, dragging her through the surprisingly thick crowd toward the bar and its undead tender.

            They took a seat and Will beckoned the guy over, a stupid smile on his face as he waved so enthusiastically that he actually hit Calypso in the face. Calypso watched the bartender scowl, but he came over to them anyway.

            “This is Nico,” Will told her when he reached them. “His dad owns this place.”

            “How old are you?” Calypso asked Nico instead.

            He was baby-faced, but marred with frown lines and a small scar on his cheek. He just shrugged at her, and then turned to Will.

            “I’m not serving either of you alcohol, so don’t even try, Solace.”

            “Fine,” Will said so easily that Calypso wanted to protest. “Who’s playing right now?”

            “ _The Half-Bloods_ ,” Nico replied in a sardonic tone. “Dad still can’t be bothered finding proper bands, so I’m still calling in friends to play. Or, make noise or whatever.”

            Calypso could tell what Nico meant. The band’s jarring array of sounds was almost as painful as _Ogygia_ ’s productions. The front man, a guy with sweat soaked black hair, could sing alright, but Calypso had trouble hearing him over the other instruments. Their bass player looked stiff in posture, and their drummer seemed to want to be anywhere else but here. Calypso felt his pain.

            “That’s Percy singing and on the guitar, he’s okay, but only because his girlfriend is teaching him how to play. Same with the others actually, and once they sort out their sync they’ll be pretty good,” Nico told them. “Although how they’ll go with original songs… I don’t wanna be working here when they try it.”

            “This is a cover?” Calypso asked, perplexed. “I don’t recognise it.”

            Nico looked at her sadly, as if it personally hurt him. “They’re playing _Highway To Hell_.”

            Calypso winced as the band finished up, the audience clapping and whooping as they packed up their stuff.

            “They’re still popular,” Will commented.

            “They’re the cool guys at school,” Nico said off-handedly. “Valdez is on next, you just wait and see that crowd thin out.”

            Nico excused himself as the band members slumped over to the bar, rounding up drinks of coke and water for them.

            “Could be worse, Calypso,” Will said. “You could be a _Half-Blood_.”

            “Their genre is wrong,” Calypso thought aloud. “They should tone it down. Something more… Airy.”

            “Hey, guys!” Will called out to the band members. The sweaty guy barely lifted his head from the bar top, but the other two were upright and facing Will. “Ever thought about being a boy band instead?”

            The drummer screwed up his face, but the bass player with the shocking blond hair and dorky glasses lit up. “That’s what I’ve been saying!”

            “We just don’t want to emasculate Frank,” the sweaty guy, Percy, said and their drummer looked offended.

            “I am incapable of feeling emasculated,” Frank said quite seriously. “It’s just that I can’t sing. Aren’t all the members meant to sing in boy bands?”

            “Traditionally,” Calypso told him. “But you can revolutionise the boy band theorem.”

            Frank seemed to like that idea, and soon they had a pile of napkins with crude notes scrawled on them for their new band plans.

            “I think you just became their manager, their Simon Cowell,” Will laughed. Calypso laughed with him as she watched a scrawny guy up on the stage readjust the microphone to his height, then trailing cords from his instruments to the power sockets.

            Calypso squinted in the darkness to see that it wasn’t really multiple instruments for various people, but all mashed together into one machine that the guy was climbing into. His suspenders caught and snapped against his chest a few times as he tried to wiggle his way in, falling back on his arse at one point as his foot got stuck. Calypso could hardly work out what individual instruments any of them were meant to be, although the biggest one definitely looked like a horn of some kind, and there might have been a keyboard.

            It was like Frankenstein’s monster of musical instruments, and the guy with the elfish ears and manic grin was their creator.

            “Ayyy!” Percy shouted. “Valdez!”

            The guy on the stage waved as the rest of _The Half-Bloods_ started cheering. No one else in the crowd seemed to be that excited for this guy’s set, but Calypso clapped politely anyway.

            “Hey, hey,” the guy said into the microphone, “I’m Leo Valdez and welcome to the Valdezinator.”

            He indicated to his monstrous instrument, clapping it happily and dislodging a piece onto the stage.

            “Don’t worry about that,” Leo told the crowd. “I don’t need it, anyway. At least, I don’t think.”

            Beside her, Will started laughing.

            “This first song I’ll be playing for you is dedicated to my life-long bro, Jason. It’s called _Grease Lightning_.”

            The blond guy from _The Half-Bloods_ banged his head onto the bar top, while Percy patted his back soothingly.

            Leo spread out his feet and hooked his arms somewhere inside his instrument, shifting into what looked like an uncomfortable position. Slowly, quietly, Calypso heard the steady beat of a drum, watching Leo’s foot tap on the floor in time, without actually seeing where the drum was. A keyboard started playing, and with his eyes closed Leo began playing and singing into the microphone.

            “How does that thing work?” Calypso asked no one in particular. It was an incredible one-man instrument, even if the all of the sounds were overbearing and a little bit fast.

            “Dunno,” Frank replied. “He tried teaching us once but none of us are small enough to get in there.”

            Calypso vaguely wondered how Leo wasn’t getting completely crushed, but as soon as he started singing it sounded like he was.

            “Oh boy!” Percy said with a wide smile on his face and his hands clapped over his ears. “Here we go!”

            Leo sucked. It was the best way Calypso could describe it, because after the first verse she too decided to block her ears with her fingers. He was completely tone deaf, but what he lacked in talent he made up for in passion, not that anyone was thanking him for it. The crowd groaned and turned away from the small dance floor, some leaving completely while others sought refuge in the far tables settled in the corner of the bar.

            But Leo didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were still closed, and his body moved in a perfectly fast pace dance, his hands hidden inside the instrument and feet moving in rhythm. It was clearly noticeable as _Grease Lightning_ , unlike _The Half-Bloods_ ’ rendition of _Highway To Hell_ , only incredibly sped up.

            Calypso kind of liked it, kind of wanted to leave immediately.

            The light from outside stung her eyes every time a new group of people fled the bar through the front door, seeking out the quiet from Leo’s dying singing voice. After three songs it was only Calypso, Will, and _The Half-Bloods_ still remaining at the bar. That was when Calypso saw Nico turn off the power.

            Leo’s voice died dramatically as the microphone was switched off, the empty bar filtering out the sound and then filling with nothing but Leo’s raw instruments. He stopped playing and immediately turned to the bar and shouted, “Nico!”

            Calypso could see that Percy was trying hard not to laugh, while Jason looked like he wanted to scold Nico. Calypso was just grateful for the quiet.

            “You emptied the bar, _again_ ,” Nico shouted back, his arms crossed over his chest. “My dad isn’t going to be impressed.”

            Leo shimmied out of the Frankenstein instrument and strolled to the bar, leaning over it casually and pointing a finger in Nico’s face.

            “Do you know anything about music from the soul, Nico?” Leo asked. “Do you even have a soul?”

            “If I have a soul, then you have an amazing singing voice,” Nico deadpanned. Will snorted, and Calypso had to hide a smile behind her hand.

            Leo just ignored him. “It’s meant to be raw, you know? Meant to be ugly. That’s what the self is all about.”

            Nico rolled his eyes and disappeared into the backroom, coming back with a leather jacket and keys.

            “Well, might as well lock up. Everyone, out.”

            The group groaned, but Calypso slipped out of her seat happily, glad to be away from the gloomy atmosphere and the horrible music.

            “Now’s the time that you serve us vodka,” Percy was imploring behind her.

            “No way in hell,” Nico replied. “I’ll die before I willingly serve you alcohol. Even when you are overage.”

            Calypso grabbed hold of Will’s arm, pulling him in close. “How old is Nico, anyway?”

            Will smiled. “He’s only seventeen, but his dad is pretty… Relaxed.”

            “You mean stingy,” Leo said, throwing an arm around Will and winking at Calypso.

            Will removed Leo’s arm from his shoulders. “Don’t let Nico hear you say that,” he said, and then left to walk with said bartender.

            Leo held the door open for Calypso, bowing dramatically to usher her through into the world of light. Calypso blinked against the sudden sun, belatedly noticing that Leo had shut the door in the faces of the rest of the group to walk beside her again.

            “I’m Leo,” he told her. “You can call me the Valdezinator.”

            “I’ll pass,” Calypso replied as she headed down the street.

            Leo ran to catch up to her. “And what do I call you?”

            “Not interested,” Calypso deadpanned.

            Leo spluttered. “What, no that’s not – okay, maybe a little, but like – no! I’m not hitting on you!” His bright red face suggested to Calypso that was a lie. “You a friend of Will’s? He comes over to the Hades a lot. He’s cool.”

            She could hear Will’s laugh playing behind her. She didn’t know what he planned to do now, but Calypso wanted to go home, and so when they reached the end of the street, she turned left.

            “Hey!” Leo protested. “Where’re you going?”

            Calypso huffed. “Home.”

            “Oh,” Leo said quietly. “Okay. Uh, bye?”

            Calypso smiled briefly before waving good bye to Will, and carried herself home as a voice chased after her, “Wait! You didn’t tell me your name!”

            She needed twenty-four hours of sleep to work off this headache caused primarily by Leo Valdez.

 

 _***_

_A pretty face, sure, but what an excellent body._

_It swallowed me whole so I didn’t need a home,_

_But then spat me back out to fend on my own._

_***_

 

Will dragged her to the Hades after every band practice.

            “I don’t see why you need me there,” Calypso griped. “You never even talk to me.”

            Will looked offended, but before he could protest Calypso cut him off. “You just spend all your time flirting with the bartender.”

            He had the decency to blush, but his coyness didn’t last long. “And you spend all your time flirting with Leo.”

            Calypso shrieked and smacked him on the arm. “I do not! He’s so annoying!” They were a block away from the Hades now, and Calypso hurried on ahead as she continued to complain. “He talks too much, and he talks too fast, and he doesn’t listen when I tell him how to make his sets better, and he thinks I’m like, totally in love with him – which I am not! Because he’s always covered in grease or some weird lubricant – shut up Will, for the instruments! You’re as bad as he is!”

            She turned back to Will, glaring against his amused expression as she crossed her arms over her chest.

            “And he looks stupid,” Calypso added. “Too skinny. And just weird.”

            A voice startled her from behind. “Sheesh, tell me how you really feel.”

            Calypso swivelled around to come face to face with Leo, his lazy grin still on his face but slightly strained.

            “You also smell like oil,” she told him, and pushed past to get through the door.

            The Hades was crowded today, which was odd. The last few weeks had been quiet, probably due to the bar’s lack of musical entertainment, but today it was practically overflowing with people.

            “What’s going on here?” Will asked somewhere behind her.

            “Sign up for Battle of the Bands,” Leo replied. “Nico’s dad is finally doing something about the live music at this place.”

            Calypso pushed through the crowd to reach her usual spot at the bar, finding Percy draped over four of the stools with his whole body.

            “There you are!” he shouted. “I’ve been saving these seats for you guys forever. I think those biker dudes were ready to beat me up.”

            He sat up for Calypso to take her spot, and she put her bag on the stool Will usually sat at. Leo’s spot was left unprotected, and it wasn’t long until an older guy claimed it, shooting Percy glares in case he tried to protest.

            “Too bad for Leo,” Calypso said to Percy over the buzzing of the crowd.

            Beside Percy was a beautiful girl, her blonde hair in messy tight ringlets that fell over her petite body. She had only met Annabeth once before, but was instantly taken by the clever girl with the peculiar taste in music scenes.

            Beside Annabeth were her band members. Calypso waved to them and they all waved excitedly back, probably would have gotten up to greet her had there not been the risk that their seats would be taken.

            Will collapsed beside her, taking the last seat at the bar and causing Leo behind them to groan. He yelled at Percy for not saving him a seat as Will beckoned Nico over.

            “Battle of the Bands?” Will asked excitedly. Nico nodded his exasperatedly.

            “Where do we sign up?” Calypso suddenly asked, but the screech of a microphone drowned her out.

            “Testing,” a gentle voice echoed in the bar. “Okay, that seems to be working. Hi, I’m Hazel.” Calypso turned in her seat to see a small, dark skinned girl with incredible caramel hair stand up on her toes to reach the microphone. She recognised her as the youngest member in Annabeth’s band. “Along with my brother, Nico, we’ll be holding the sign ups for Battle of the Bands, commencing next weekend. Winner gets prime time spots to play at the Hades and uh… I think there’s a trophy.”

            She paused while she shuffled through some papers, muttering under her breath as she collected herself.

            “The bar will be closed during sign ups…” she said vaguely, still reading from the papers. “And that seems to be it. Oh! And you can’t enter more than once. So if you’re in multiple bands, you can only perform with one. Sorry. We’ll get started now. Please be orderly.”

            The bar instantly came alive with movement as people all surged to the stage to try and get in front. Percy and his members practically launched off the bar top to climb over people to the front, while Percy shouted, “Annabeth, I’ll put your band on!”

            Annabeth winked at Calypso as she took a sip from her coke. “He’s useful sometimes.”

            Calypso could barely stand from her stool with the amount of people packed in. She wanted to sign up, wanted to have a go at something she had always dreamed about, but the suffocation of the crowd of people forced her to stay in her place.

            “Did I hear you wanted to sign up?” Will asked her. She nodded, but slumped her head in her hands.

            “No way I can get up there, though,” she said sadly. She could barely see the stage where Hazel and Nico controlled the sign up sheets.

            “There’s no number limit,” Annabeth piped up. “But if you sign up earlier, you play earlier. That’s why everyone’s rushing. Just wait until they all leave.”

            Calypso slumped back in her seat. Maybe it didn’t really matter what time she performed, as long as she got to in the first place. Although a crowd to watch her would be nice, she could probably convince Will and his friends to see her.

            It was an hour before the bar floor was nearly cleared, and Calypso could finally rise from her seat and walk comfortably to the stage. Hazel smiled at her as she approached, then winced as a shout exploded in the bar.

            “What do you mean I can’t sign up?!”

            That was Leo, Calypso could tell before she even saw his face, yelling at a nonplussed Nico who just leaned back in his seat.

            “It’s called Battle of the _Bands_ , idiot,” Nico drawled. “One person isn’t a band.”

            “But I’ve got all bases covered,” Leo insisted. “I’ve got a singer, me, a guitar player, me, and a harmonica player, me.”

            “Maybe ditch the harmonica,” Hazel suggested before turning to Calypso. “Are you signing up?”

            Calypso faltered. “I… Don’t have a band.”

            She felt bad saying it. She did have a band, Uncle Apollo’s garage band, but it wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when she envisioned herself performing on stage for the first time. She couldn’t decide what was worse – not playing, or playing with _Ogygia_.

            Hazel’s face fell. “Oh, I’m sorry. But Dad did say he didn’t want solo artists. Apparently they ‘demand too much’.” Hazel lowered her voice to mock her father and Nico laughed.

            “Sorry guys,” Nico said, but he was only looking at Calypso when he said it.

            Calypso closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she said, “Leo.”

            Leo said, “Huh?”

            She had to take a calming breath. She wasn’t lying to Will when she told him she thought Leo was annoying. He spoke too quickly, and usually didn’t make sense anyway, and had a habit of exclaiming with his hands to the point where Calypso had incurred several slaps to the face.

            But he was probably her only other option. She didn’t want to perform with _Ogygia_.

            “We should team up,” she said as lightly as she could, but Leo still laughed in her face.

            “No way,” he said. “No way am I working with _you_.”

            “What’s wrong with me?” She instantly bristled, and Leo had the decency to look a little scared.

            “You’re controlling and… and… moody!”

            “Am not,” Calypso huffed. She turned to a baffled Hazel and said, “Leo and I will be signing up together as one band.”

            Hazel looked nervously to Leo, then to Nico, and then back at Calypso. “Are you sure?” she whispered.

            Calypso took another deep breath. “Yes.”

            “See,” she could hear Leo mutter to Nico. “Controlling.”

            “What… Um, what’s your band name?”

            “Valdezinator,” Leo said instantly, while Calypso told her, “Put us down as Calypso and Leo, and we’ll get back to you.”

            “Leo and Calypso,” Leo corrected her, but she let it pass.

            Hazel still looked unsure as she wrote their names down, while Nico looked like Halloween had come early.

            “I look forward to seeing your performance,” he told them.

            Leo and Calypso gave him the finger.

 

_***_

_There’s this trust in rivers that I hold on to._

_A beating pressure against all dams,_

_And always flowing back toward the sea._

_***_

 

Their first session was a disaster. It was the kindest way Calypso could put it.

            They met at Leo’s house, but got kicked to the backyard by his Aunt Maria because of the noise they were going to make. There was already a flattened patch of grass at the back fence that Calypso assumed was from Leo’s previous practices.

            “Sorry about her, she’s a monster,” Leo said. That was about the last neutral thing he said to her the whole day.

            First, there was the fight about what the band should be named. Leo insisted they use Valdezinator, because it was right there for the taking, but Calypso didn’t appreciate being left out in the name.

            Then there was the fight about what they would play. Calypso wanted to try writing an original song, and Leo insisted they use one he had already written up.

            “This song is about… Food?” Calypso said after she read through the papers.

            “Not just any food,” Leo pointed out. “Tacos.”

            “No.”

            “Yes.”

            “No.”

            “Yes.”

            Calypso had started to regret not signing up with _Ogygia_.

            And then finally, there was the dispute over who would actually be the one to sing. By this point Calypso was tempted to jump over the back fence and make her way home.

            “Leo,” Calypso said calmer than she was feeling, “You can’t sing.”

            Leo gaped at her, hand on his chest. “I can so! Everyone can sing! I mean, unless your non-verbal, but even then they can sing, they just don’t like to. Unless you don’t have a tongue or a voice box and vocal chords, then everyone can sing!”

            Calypso threw a patch of grass onto his lap. “I’ll rephrase then. You can’t sing well. You shouldn’t sing. Your singing voice is terrible. You sound like a dying cat. Are you getting it yet?”

            Leo pouted. “I get it. Who will sing then?”

            Calypso looked at him with a straight face.

            “Can you sing?” he asked uncertainly.

            “Everyone can sing,” Calypso said, trying to hold back a smile. Leo groaned as she continued, “I have been told I sing very well. I have a nice voice, if I do say so myself.”

            Leo threw his hands in the air. “Fine. You can sing! What will I do? I can play the drums, harmonica, keyboard, saxophone, triangle… Or we can just use the Valdezinator.”

            He had brought it outside, and sat looming over them like some malevolent abstract art piece. Calypso eyed it warily.

            “It’s… interesting,” she tried. “But it’s too much. I won’t be heard over it.”

            Leo gave her look as if to say, _so what?_

            “Pick one instrument,” Calypso told him. “I’ll learn one if I need to.”

            “Just one?” Leo exclaimed. “That’s like picking a favourite child!”

            Calypso rose and dusted the grass and dirt from her dress. She’d had enough of Leo Valdez for one day.

            “If you don’t pick one by tomorrow, I’ll pick it for you,” she warned him. “I’ll see you, same time tomorrow.”

            Then she went through the side gate without another word.

 

_***_

_He told me I had beautiful eyes and a beautiful face,_

_But that my voice would need some work._

_Didn’t think I’d ever have to chew my way out of duct tape._

_***_

 

“No,” was the first thing Calypso had to tell Leo on their second day of practice.

            He sat in a plastic chair in his backyard with a giant tuba resting between his knees. His lips could barely reach the mouth of the tuba, but he grinned widely at Calypso.

            “Come on, it’ll be unique,” he said to her before giving the tuba a big blow. Calypso had to block her ears.

            “When will you stop messing around?” Calypso yelled at him. She paused. “Where did you even get this?”

            “Dad owns a junkyard. A lot of instruments end up there that I polish up.”

            “And put your mouth on?” Calypso grimaced. “No. This isn’t going to work.”

            Leo sighed and rose from the plastic chair. “You’re right. There’s not nearly enough going on with the tuba. I’ll be so bored.”

            “Not what I meant,” Calypso said slowly. “What do you mean you’ll get bored with it?”

            She followed him to the garage, where his monster instrument sat, along with other bits and pieces of other instruments all over the bench top. There were a few acoustic guitars that seemed to be in good shape, and about three incomplete drum kits that Calypso could see. Leo rummaged through a chest, pulling out weird instruments Calypso didn’t even know the names for, until he pulled out a mini accordion.

            “Absolutely not,” Calypso said immediately and Leo whined at her.

            “But there’s so much to do!” He experimentally played the keys on the accordion. “So many weird parts – my hands will never rest! It’s great!”

            “I don’t understand what that’s got to do with anything,” Calypso sighed, “But please, can we just do something normal? Something that will sound halfway decent?”

            She could hear in her head the weird percussion of _Ogygia_ , it’s complete insensibility, the way that nothing flowed together. She wanted to sing to music she could feel flowing through her body, not be stabbed by needles of sound that jarred her voice.

            Leo rubbed the back of his head as he surveyed the garage. His curly hair was becoming a mess, not that Calypso thought he groomed it anyway, and his bottom lip was between his teeth in contemplation. For the first time, Leo was still and quiet, and Calypso felt off about it.

            “What is it?” she said roughly, not meaning to sound as harsh as she did.

            “I can play guitar…” Leo said slowly, and Leo never said anything slowly that it made Calypso feel like she was in the twilight zone.

            “Is there something wrong with the guitar?” she pressed.

            “No,” Leo replied, then went back to biting his lip. It was really getting on Calypso’s nerves.

            “But?”

            “But it’s too slow!” Leo finally cracked. His body became limp and fluid again, his arms up in the air as he ranted. “Like, especially with an acoustic guitar, I know you gotta use both hands but one is only going like, wit-woo, you know, up and down. The other one you just gotta move your fingers around and stay there for a while and like, yikes. Calypso, it’s so slow! I need my hands to be doing things at all times!”

            Even now, Calypso watched him as he fiddled around with the hem of his shirt, then his hair, then to the bracelets on his wrists, before finally picking up one of the guitars.

            “Anyway,” Leo muttered, looking a little embarrassed, “Here’s _Wonderwall_.”

            He started playing. Calypso listened as he played the song, originally at the right tempo, but gradually speeding up until it was unrecognisable as the same song. His hands were lightning fast that Calypso was enrapt with, finishing the song within a minute and then picking up from the start again. He didn’t sing, which she was grateful for, but his super speed gave her an idea.

            “Stop,” she told him, but he couldn’t hear her over his own playing. His whole body was moving while he played too, moving from side to side or wherever his feet took him. Calypso had to put a hand over his to catch his attention, and his startled expression seemed to say that he had forgotten she was there at all. He dropped the guitar unceremoniously.

            “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, but Calypso kept hold of his hand.

            “I have an idea,” she told him, and then they finally started to work.

 

_***_

_This water tasted pretty sweet until I opened my eyes._

_Again, another boy, dripping me dry._

_My blood runs into open mouths that will never die._

_***_

 

Calypso never thought that working with Leo would be this easy.

            After he got over pretending to detest her – and Calypso had to admit, she had to stop pretending too – he would listen to her advice and change accordingly. In turn, Leo made a lot of suggestions and came up with a lot of weird ideas, but they were weird in a way that Calypso could shape them into something unique for them.

            Leo had painted several faces on the back fence so they could pretend that they had an audience, and Calypso found it surprisingly helpful.

            “I think we need less words in this line,” Leo told her and she nodded. She marked a star next to the line for later, and they kept going.

            “Change that C to a G, I think,” she said to him sometime later. She paused as she listened to Leo play the alternate version, both of them nodding in agreement that it sounded better. They were about to start again when Calypso’s phone rang.

            The caller ID made her blood run cold.

            “Oh no,” she whispered as she answered the call. “Hey, Uncle Apollo!”

            She could hear Uncle Hyacinths on the drums in the background before Uncle Apollo shushed him. “Hey, Callie! What are you up to? Where are you?”

            Calypso smacked her head against the fence, coming face to face with one of Leo’s weird paintings. “I’m sorry, Uncle, I forgot all about it.”

            “That’s no sweat!” her uncle said. “Can you come over now or are you busy? But hey, listen to this, Hermes found out about a local battle of the bands thing happening this weekend – we should totally give it a go! What’s the point of practicing if we aren’t going to play, you know? What do you say?”

            By now, Calypso had sunk to the ground, her head in her free hand while Leo hovered over her nervously.

            “I’m sorry, Uncle, but um…”

            “You can’t come? That’s okay, we’ll meet up tomorrow, or whenever you’re free next. I want at least one practice in before the competition –”

            “I can’t!” Calypso cut over him. “I’m… Already signed up for it. In another band.”

            The line was silent for a bit. “What band? How long have you been in another band?”

            Calypso chewed her bottom lip. “Five… days?”

            “Hermes said that sign ups opened only a few days ago…”

            “Yeah, Uncle Apollo.”

            “You joined a different band specifically for this competition?”

            Calypso exhaled deeply. “Yeah, Uncle Apollo.”

            There was a quiet, fragile silence over the static of the line before it cut out, Uncle Apollo having hung up on her without another word. Calypso blew a raspberry.

            “Everything… alright?” Leo asked. He was half crouching, half leaning over to look at her uncertainly, his hands wringing together nervously as he waited for her to respond.

            “Just my uncle… He has this garage band going on that I’m in and he just wanted to sign us up into Battle of the Bands but…”

            “You can’t perform twice,” Leo finished for her and she nodded glumly. He took a breath. “Are you… going to quit? And play with your uncle?”

            She looked up at him sharply, surprised by his words. He looked so unsure, an unusual look for Leo to wear and Calypso didn’t like it. She softened.

            “No,” she told him gently. “I’m staying with you. I like what we’ve made so far.”

            Leo’s face split into a grin, and suddenly Calypso’s soul felt lighter. She knew she’d have to apologise and face her uncle soon, but it was a betrayal she was sure Uncle Apollo could understand, for when Leo smiled she felt like she had done the right thing.

            “But I better get going,” she said regretfully. “I have some damage control to take care off.”

            Leo pulled her to her feet and waved her goodbye all the way down the street. For some reason, Calypso couldn’t stop smiling.

 

_***_

_My pigtails are still being pulled and twisted._

_Those same hands will wish that they never existed,_

_Once they try to wander down under my britches._

_***_

 

Uncle Apollo was naturally dramatic when she saw him the next day, and Calypso couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Uncle Hyacinths had to sneak her out the back door while Uncle Apollo went to make himself consoling tea, the snap of the back door hidden under the sounds of his wailing.

            “You know he’s just putting on a show to get attention,” Uncle Hyacinths whispered. “He’ll be over it by tomorrow. Do what makes you happy, Callie.”

            The walk to Leo’s felt comforting, even though it had only been routine for a few days. She didn’t even need to knock on the front door to greet his aunt anymore, just went straight through the side gate to the backyard, where Leo would always be waiting, usually tinkering with something he’d drop when he realised she was watching him.

            Today it was a speaker, the long red and black cords winding back to the garage where they plugged into the power socket. Leo was on his stomach as he twirled wires together and experimentally turned the knobs on the speaker.

            Calypso stopped to watch him. This was when he was most calm, she found, when his hands had something to do and his brain something to solve. She’d heard that if sharks stay still for too long then they die, and the same could probably be said of Leo. She wondered if that made her a remora, one of those fish that clutched to sharks and went with them along the ride.

            It definitely wasn’t the best image, so Calypso cleared her throat.

            “Eeee!” Leo squeaked as he startled. He hoisted himself up from the ground, fruitlessly brushing off grass and dirt from his stained t-shirt.

            “Is this the speaker we’re going to use?” Calypso asked, ignoring his embarrassed looks.

            “Amplifier,” Leo corrected automatically. “But, uh, yeah this is it. I’m pretty sure it’s in working condition. Just gonna give it a little test run now.”

            Calypso plonked herself into the plastic chair Leo seemed to keep around in the backyard. He tested the amp with his electric guitar, the sound blasting and breaking the quiet of the slow afternoon

            “Seems to work,” he said to her with a grin. Calypso smiled back.

            “I was thinking…” she started, but stopped herself. Leo gave her a quizzical look, but she waved him off and rose from the chair, disappearing into the garage. She spotted the drum kits quickly, dragging out three tom drums and a high hat. They snagged on the grass until Leo helped her carry them to their make shift stage along the back fence.

            “A drum line might work well with our song,” Calypso said as way of explanation. “I wanted to try it out.”

            Leo adjusted the drums so Calypso could stand while she played.

            “I like it,” Leo said excitedly. “But uh… Can you play the drums?”

            Calypso thought for a moment. “We’ll find out.”

            They tried out different combinations for a few hours before they decided on one. Turned out Calypso could play the drums, rather decently, and perfectly matched Leo’s tempo and groove. Aunt Maria shouted at them from the back door at one point but Leo grinned as he turned up the volume on the amp to drown her out. Calypso stopped singing to laugh, beating down harder on her drums to compete with Leo. When they got tired, Leo peeked over the side gate, and declared that Aunt Maria’s car was gone and she had left the house.

            “She’s gonna kill me when she gets back,” Leo said quite happily. “But, boy, was it worth it.”

            There was a glow to Leo that Calypso hadn’t noticed before. Sweat was dripping down his face, and his small chest was heaving from exhaustion, but his radiant smile never faltered, and the laughter in his voice never faded.

            She swiped the back of her hand over her forehead, drawing away beads of sweat, and wondered if she looked the same to Leo.

            She hoped so.

 

***

_A peeking sun will wave to me but I don’t have the time._

_Set down, sun, please let it die._

_But everyone knows that a sun will only rise and rise and rise._

***

 

Today was the day.

            Today was the day and Calypso felt like she was going to be sick.

            Technically, it was tonight. They weren’t due to play until the Hades’ peak hour had long passed. Calypso didn’t understand what made the bar so popular during the day, but the patrons seemed to thin as the sun went down, just when Calypso and Leo were meant to make their debut.

            Leo’s friends had promised to stick around to see them, although they sounded reluctant to Calypso. Will told her that he wouldn’t miss it for the world, but something told her that it had more to do with the bartender than her musical skills.

            She got to the club around midday, hours away from her own set, and found Leo already perched up on his usual stool, watching the current band play.

            “Hey,” she said to him as she took a seat. The band playing wasn’t that bad, but there wasn’t anything really special to them, Calypso thought, so she didn’t feel bad about dragging Leo’s attention away from them.

            “Hey,” he replied. “You feelin’ pumped? Ready to shred it?”

            He bobbed on his seat as he spoke, his usual spark of excitement lighting up his whole body. Calypso couldn’t help the smile that found its way onto her face.

            “Ready to shred it,” she told him, even if her insides already felt like they’d been stripped into a million pieces.

            “The boys are playing next,” Leo said. “They’re out the back ‘preparing’. I went out there before to check on them and they were playing charades or something.”

            Calypso laughed. Nico placed a glass of coke in front of her without a hello, simply asking, “Will?”

            “Coming,” she replied and took a sip. She turned back to Leo. “What are they playing?”

            Leo pulled a face. “They took your advice way too literally. They’re playing One Direction.”

            “I did say boy band,” she reasoned. “At least it wasn’t old school.”

            Leo sighed dramatically and draped himself over the bar top. “I wanted to see Jason with Justin Timberlake’s hair from 1998.”

            “That would have been good,” Calypso sighed wistfully. “But now he’s just Niall.”

            They stayed silent for the remainder of the song, and just as _The Half-Bloods_ were setting up on stage, Will slipped in beside Calypso.

            “Haven’t missed anything, have I?” he asked.

            “Three people have died,” Leo deadpanned.

            “Twenty injured,” Calypso added.

            Will just sighed.

            _The Half-Bloods_ weren’t half bad. There was a much better flow of energy between the members, Calypso noticed, now that they were playing a different kind of song. Frank stayed on drums and didn’t sing, but his beat was a lot steadier. Calypso was not prepared to discover that Jason, whom she had come to know as a quiet social justice nerd, could actually sing really well.

            Their song ended with an uproar from the crowd, but it was nothing compared to the cheer when _Goddesses of Olympus_ took their place.

            “If we don’t win,” Leo shouted to her over the crowd, “They better.”

            His hot breath on her ear made her shiver, and she smiled and agreed, shifting closer to him.

            She could see Annabeth at the front microphone, a guitar slung over her shoulder as she adjusted the height. She winked when she caught Calypso watching, and turned to the brunette girl with feathers adorning her hair. Calypso had only met her briefly, but remembered her name was Piper and could apparently do some killer backing vocals. Hazel practically disappeared behind her drum kit, only her caramel hair in sight above the cymbals.

            Calypso had to change her mind after their song finished, as she tugged on Leo’s shirt to pull him closer.

            “I don’t want to win,” she told him. “They need to win.”

            Leo shook his head sadly. “I thought you’d say that.”

            He didn’t move away, and Calypso didn’t want him to, and so they spent their hours in the lead up to their debut close together, critiquing each band that played.

 

***

_I never thought I’d find a friend in someone ugly and as happy as them._

_I was letting go of this four letter trend,_

_But I guess – oh, God - here we go again._

***

 

They shivered in the back alley as Percy backed up Leo’s old van, inching as close to the back door as possible.

            “Keep going, keep going,” Leo instructed him. “Stop! Whadyareckon, Calypso? Close enough?”

            “Whatever,” she told him impatiently. “Let’s just do it, I’m freezing. We’re wasting time.”

            Leo slid open the van door as Percy got out of the driver’s seat, coming around to help Leo lift the amp. Calypso took one tom drum in each hand, trailing behind them to set it up on stage. Percy didn’t come back with them to get the rest, and before Leo could make his final move, Calypso stopped him.

            “I just realised,” she said, “That we don’t actually have a proper band name.”

            “Oh. Well, Leo and Calypso can do for now, right?” He looked anxious, jittery with nerves, and Calypso felt almost cruel holding him back, but she pressed on.

            “We need a name.”

            “Right now?” he said exasperatedly.

            “Yes, right now.” She paused to look at him, absently fixing the left strap of his suspenders. She gritted her teeth. “I want it to be known now, that I like playing with you and want to do it even if we don’t win this competition. It makes me happy.” She finally looked him in the eye. “This makes me happy, so we need a name.”

            “ _Festus_ ,” Leo told her, and the long paused that followed made her want to hit him.

            “Did you just swear at me?” she asked.

            Leo shook his head erratically. “No! No, the band name, _Festus_. It means happy in Latin.” Calypso didn’t need to see the blush blooming on Leo’s cheeks to know it was there. He looked at his feet as he kicked at the ground. “I helped Jason study and thought that one was funny. But now… I like it.” He started to lean in closer, but seemed to lose his nerve, hovering in a space not quite personal but not normal either.

            Calypso swallowed and moved in the space. She only remembered to close her eyes at the last moment as her lips touched Leo’s, a quiver of warmth spreading over her face as Leo finally kissed back.

            He withdrew, looking slightly shell-shocked and starry eyed, but held her gaze as he said, “I feel _festus_ when I play with you, too.”

            Calypso choked out a laugh. “You ruined the moment.”

            Leo grinned. “Yeah, I do that. We going?”

            He shifted the guitar to one hand, holding out his other hand for her to take. His hand was callused and dry and pulled her through the back door, to a stage she’d been dreaming of all her life.

 

***

_I’ll give it up,_

_I’m giving up,_

_I was letting go._

***

 

Their song was all speed, no breaks, no room for breathing. There wasn’t a moment when either of them stopped. Calypso didn’t want to stop.

            But it did stop, too quickly, even though a wave of applause filled in the silence. Calypso could barely hear it over her beating heart.

            Her ears were ringing too, though from excitement or blown eardrums was yet to be determined. She didn’t mind. It sounded beautiful.

            She turned to her partner and held out her hand. He looked as windswept as she felt, and took her hand clumsily. They bowed together, then began packing up their things.

            A brief kiss on her cheek from a boy most beautiful in movement told her it wasn’t their first and last bow together.

            Calypso kissed him back.

 

_***_

_Tell all of my ghosts that I said goodbye._

_Tell them, if you have to, that it was all a lie._

_I found a form I can run into and have our hearts collide._

_***_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!! This was a commission I did for a friend of a friend, check out my writing tag if you'd like! juuuuzou.tumblr.com/tagged/darcy+writes
> 
> [i also made a playlist for this fic!](https://8tracks.com/mssrsmoony/battle-of-the-hearts)


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